Ramsay: I cooked up book theft to frame my rival Marco

The heat of the celebrity kitchen has long provided fuel for some fiery professional rivalries.

None more so than the simmering tension between Gordon Ramsay and his one-time mentor Marco Pierre White.

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So when a scooter-riding raider made off with his precious restaurant reservations book and Ramsay pointed the finger at London rival White it was to ignite one of the most intriguing mysteries of the culinary world.

Was it just another spat between the equally hot-headed duo, or was there a genuine case of criminal rivalry?

The answer, so it seems, is neither.

For some nine years later it has emerged that it was all an elaborate trick dreamed up by Ramsay, fearing he was about to be deposed at his Michelin starred Chelsea restaurant Aubergine by White.

Ramsay admitted to organising the raid in an interview with the New Yorker magazine, describing his ruse as a "stroke of genius".

Sadly, he might find that it is White who has the last laugh.

Scotland Yard yesterday said they could not rule out reopening the investigation into the "theft".

If that were to happen, he could be cautioned for wasting police team.

A police source indicated officers who investigated would be less than impressed to discover their efforts had been wasted.

"It does not show him in a particularly good light if he was wasting police time," said the source.

One suggestion last night was that Ramsay - who happens to be busy promoting his latest New York venture and a new gastro pub in East London - be made to pay for the cost of the investigation.

Jenny Jones, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: "I seriously hope that the Met is going to send him a bill for their time - and when he pays it back he should add 12 and half per cent for good service.

"This sort of waste of police time is unforgivable. Police are there to catch criminals not to cater to rivalries between chefs."

He might be Britain's richest chef, with an estimated wealth of £60 million and nine Michelin stars, but in March 1998 Ramsay, it seems, was still less than secure in his worth.

He had studied in White's kitchen - and to this day credits him with teaching him everything he knows.

Nonetheless, he believed White, the first British chef to earn three Michelin stars, was poised to depose him as head chef at Aubergine.

When the reservations book was snatched Ramsay was furious.

"Someone rushed into the reception area and grabbed it during the evening," he said. "It was in the middle of service and it has completely disappeared.

"The police and solicitors are on to it and I can't say who it is."

He added colour to the tale when he said: "With 6000 reservations on the list you can imagine how inconvenienced we are."

He even told how the culprit had started faxing the list back to him page by page, even spelling his name wrong.

White never took over, and Ramsay's suspicions about the alleged culprit were well known.

Yet it seems it was all a recipe conjured up by the chef.

"It was me," he told New Yorker in a typically expletive-littered interview.

"I nicked it. I blamed Marco. Because I knew that would f*** him and that it would call off the dogs."

He told how he arranged a biker to steal it, adding: "It was my one stroke of genius, f***** someone over without his knowing that I was the one who done it. And the [restaurant owners] cutting Marco off and wanting to get closer to me, kissing my ass.

Learning that the attempt to tarnish his name was all a ruse, White was not surprisingly cheery.

He denied ever plotting to take over his protege's job and said: "It bothered me that I'd been accused of theft. But it was totally inconceivable - implausible. What would my gain have been to behave like that?

"If that's how you pay back your friend, and people who've helped you, that's sad.

"But I've always said ambition is one of the most dangerous preoccupations in the world."

Quite what initiated the rivalry between the two chefs is unclear.

Some speculate it may have been Ramsay's perceived snub of White when he asked another chef to write the foreword of his first cookery book in 1996.

White has admitted that Ramsay infuriated him by arriving at his wedding accompanied by a camera crew who were filming one of his cookery programmes.

Whatever the reason for the feud, the have become the best-known rivals of the professional kitchen

One things is clear, if revenge really is a dish best served cold, Ramsay might have been better served to keep his confession in the deep freeze.